Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Age and Aging

Myron F. Weiner, M.D.
Dallas, Texas

 

Age, a mere number,

is neither enemy

nor friend.

Aging

Stirs us from primordium

Though maturation

To our universal fate.

Age measures our finitude

Aging, our fortitude.

Adding strength when young

Stripping when old

Of sensibilities

Of strength

Leaving only lassitude.

The years are not to be feared,

Rather, our decrepitude.

 

Age is objective

Aging, subjective.

Age is measured by the calendar

Aging by our strength of will

And our ability to look beyond our physical being…

 


 

Myron F. Weiner, MD, is a retired geriatric psychiatrist who established the training program in geriatric psychiatry at UT Southwestern in 1990. He was Editor-in-Chief of The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Alzheimer Disease and Other Dementias, and contributed the chapter Neurocognitive Disorders to the 6th edition of the American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Psychiatry. He is a co-developer of the Texas Functional Living Scale and the Quality of Life in Dementia scale, the latter having been translated into six languages and used around the world. He has spent his entire professional career in Dallas, Texas.

 

Summer 2016  |  Sections  |  Poetry

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